My favorite decade was...

I have written a couple blogs in the past for "Finish The Sentence Friday."  Well, I think I'll try it again this week.  This week's topic is "My favorite decade is..."

 

 

Which is my favorite decade?  I have had the pleasure of living through 3.3 decades.  I am not sure that the first one really counts.  I was born in 1980.  I don't really have any memories of the first half of the decade.  I assume the 80's was a great decade for me.  No responsibilities, everything I needed was given to me, I was a kid, what's not to love.

 

The 90s were similar.  I admit, I had a lot of great moments in the 90s. It did bring lots of great milestones like becoming a teenager, getting to drive, graduating high school and going to college.  But I wouldn't consider that my favorite decade.

The 00s (what do we call them?) was okay.  I graduated from college in 2002 and tried to find my first "real" job in the field that I spent the last four years studying.  That never happened and still hasn't.  I did find a job but it was one that I got because my mom worked there.  I ended up buying a house near my home town because I was in love.  What a crock!  I lived in that house for four miserable years 45 minutes from any type of social activity, 45 minutes from my job and 5 minutes away from my ex-boyfriend and my parents.  So that wasn't really a great decade.

I think maybe my favorite decade is the current decade, the 10s (again what do you call it?)  In 2010, I bought a house in the big city.  I was close to where I worked and there was tons of social activities nearby.  I had different plans every night.  But I think, more than that, that this was the decade where I started to really be comfortable with myself.  I spent the last half of the 00s being mostly by myself.  I lived alone, in a small town where everyone was married and had kids.  To make matters worse, it was a partially dry town.  You could buy beer at the Krogers but there was no where to get a drink served to you.  No wonder I was miserable.  But when you spend a lot of time by yourself, you can really start to figure yourself out.  I don't want to get all psychological on you, but I think it is true.  I spent those years getting comfortable in my skin, figuring out who I was, and overall being okay with myself.  So when I got to the 10s, I was ready to really start living.  Plus I turned 30 in 2010 (20+10 = 30 yeah.)  I think my 30's has been the best years yet.  I feel that in my 30's, I have become most comfortable with the person that I am, more self confident.  I don't really care what other people think.  If you don't believe that, you don't regularly read my blog.  Also, in my 30's in the 2010s, I met The Smooch and we got married.  I know what you are thinking, love and hearts and fireworks and crap.  And okay, maybe some of that. 

But let's be clear, The Smooch is not always the easiest guy to live with.  He wants me to be the best person I can every day and he let's me know when I am not living up to that standard.  The short version is that he makes me a better person.  When this happens, rainbows come out of his butt and fireworks come out of mine.  Oh, isn't love grand.  But life wasn't completely easy.  Some of my most difficult and most stressful times of my life happened in this decade.  But it makes a huge difference when you have a great support system backing you up.  And each time, The Smooch and I went through a tough time, we came out on the other side better people and a stronger couple.
 



So to finish the sentence "My favorite decade is...." 2010s!  I am feeling really good about the person that I am.  Life is very good.  I am very happy that The Smooch is in my life.  We have a great life together.  We live in a great house, in a great neighborhood.

If I had a million dollars, I....

This weeks Finish the Sentence Friday's topic is "If I had a million dollars, I...".  Before I write my blog post, I need to give a quick shout out to the founders of Finish the Sentence Friday.

 

So, thank you to the lovely bloggers below.  Check out their pages and get linked up!

Janine's Confessions of Mommyaholic

Finding Ninee

Can I Get Another Bottle Of Whine...

Mommy, for Real

The Golden Spoons

 

 

Now on with the blogging.  So a couple weeks back, there was a super mega power ball millions lotto or something like that.  But the moral of the story is that there was a really big winning available.  Like tens of millions.  I was assisting with a move at work.  As you may or may not know, I work in affordable housing.  Many of our tenants started out homeless before finding homes with us.  During this move, a group of tenants were discussing what they would do with all of that money.  Some of their answers really surprised me.  Their first stop would be to the organizations that had helped them when they needed help, the churches, the shelters etc.  I was amazed by those answers and it made me glad that I do what I do.

 

Now to my greedy answers.....

 

How can I finish the sentence "If I had a million dollars, I..." after the above paragraph without starting with donating to charity.  But I would think instead of donating a lot of money to one charity, I would rather donate smaller amounts to people in need.  Like that single lady down the street with three kids who needs a new car.  Or the kids at the local school that need new coats.  That homeless guy on the off ramp.  I bet he could use a good meal and a dry pair of socks.  I think that is how I would rather give money back.

 

Then what to do with the rest of it.  I would pay off my own debt.  The Smooch and I don't have much just a student loan and a mortgage.  I think maybe a nice vacation for The Smooch and I would be next.  We would give some to our parents to ensure that they could really enjoy their retirement.  They have each given us so much and it would really be nice to pay them back in some way.

 

And that's probably about all, because who are we kidding, a million dollars isn't going very far.  After taxes, paying off debt, giving some to the rents and donating to charity, we wouldn't really have much left.  I remember when I was a kid, a million dollars seemed like so much money.  Now it really isn't much at all.  But let's be clear, if someone gave me a million dollars, I wouldn't turn it down.

My Blogging Goals for 2014 are......

So a while back I discovered and blog link up thing where they ask you to finish the sentence.  My first blog was My Favorite Christmas Tradition.  I enjoyed writing that blog and have decided to follow along to each new Finish the Sentence Friday over at Janine's Confessions of a Mommyaholic.  I don't know if I will join in each week but I will see which topics move me.

So this week's topic is My Blogging Goals for 2014 are.  While I don't think this will be a good read for my readers (sorry) I do think that it will be good for me to get some goals and commit them to paper.  I also think it might be good to let my readers know what my goals are for my blog so they understand why I do some of the things I do.

So I don't know if I really have goals for my blog.  I started the blog.... well, I am not really sure why I started this blog.  I guess part of me wanted to get some of my stories down on paper (screen).  My grandmother kept journals all of her life.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to read most of them until after she had passed.  The journals shared a part of her life that I had no idea even existed.  Experiences and feelings that she had.  I don't want future generations to find out who I am after I die.  I don't tend to be a very open person.  I think I started blogging so that I could share a part of myself.  So that friends and family could get to know be better.  I should be able to share my feelings and beliefs in person but for some reason, I don't.  It is so much easier to do it on the screen.  I feel a little bit like Doogie Howser, M.D. (anyone else remember this show?).  He ended each show by typing a journal on his computer.  I realize that it is a little different.  He wrote his feelings down just for himself and I foolishly share them with the world (or at least to the few people who read my blog.)

So goals....  My goals would probably be to write more.  I always worry about writing great material, or writing something that isn't too short.  I also feel like I have to add pictures but don't completely understand all the copyright laws so I try to take my own or draw my own.  Both end up being of poor quality.  (Trust me, I know).  I am trying to write posts that will gain me followers.  That's the funny thing about blogging.  I put something out into the world and have no idea if people are reading it or enjoying it.  Sometimes I feel like I am writing to myself.  But that is okay.  I guess my goals are to worry less about blogging.  Who cares if people are sitting on the edge of their seat following my every word.  I am going to start writing for me and just see where it goes.  Some of my future blog posts will be shorter.  I think that I would rather write more often and worry less about length and if there are pictures.  I will also not worry about making ever blog fall down laughing funny.  So I am sorry if that disappoints you but I just don't do enough stupid stuff anymore.  I will try harder but in the mean time, I will have to find something else to write about.

So that being said, I would also love to hear from you.  What do you think my goals should be?  Write more funny stuff, more serious stuff?  More about my present, more about my past?  Let me know.  Nothing makes a blogger happier than a comment, like or share!

My Favorite Christmas Tradition is.....

While surfing the internet, I ran across the blog My Favorite Christmas Tradition Is.... from Janine's Confessions of a Mommyaholic.  Janine was challenging her readers to finish the sentence "My favorite holiday/ Christmas Tradition is...."  I am accepting that challenge.

What is my favorite Christmas Tradition??  That is a good question.  As far as traditions go, I am sort of in a transitional period.  The Smooch and I just hit our two year wedding anniversary in September.  We met in January before we got married so our first Christmas together was also our first Christmas together as a married couple.  This Christmas coming up will be our third together.  We are still looking for our Christmas traditions.  So far we haven't done anything consistently.  The Smooch's family is from New York so we spend every other year at their house for Christmas.  On those years (all 1 so far), we didn't even bother putting up a Christmas tree since we wouldn't be home to enjoy it.  On the years we stay home and go to my family's for Christmas, we do put up a tree but so far our tree is pretty sad.  I have some ornaments from my childhood.  My husband also has a few ornaments from his childhood but they all have his brother's name on them.  Apparantly an ex-girlfriend of The Smooch destroyed all of his childhood ornaments in some sort of crazed fit.  I think that might be about the coldest thing you could do to a person.  Somehow my husband ended up with some of his brother's ornaments.  So our tree is a mash up of ornaments from our childhood.

This brings me to my favorite Christmas tradition.  This may not be something we do at Christmas but it is something we do for Christmas.  The Smooch and I are trying to gather ornaments from "our" life.  When we travel, we try to buy ornaments that will remind us of these trips together.  We only have a few so far but my favorite thing is getting those ornaments out each year and remembering the trip we took.  Our Christmas tree is turning into a scrap book of our lives and that is probably my favorite holiday tradition.   

This is the ornament we recently bought on a trip to visit the in-laws.  It represents our trip to New York City we took last Christmas.  When we were in NY visiting his family, we went into the city to see the tree at Rockefeller Center.  When I get home, I will put last year's date on it and then I will hang it on the tree.  Whenever I see it, I will think of my first time to Rockefeller Center and even more importantly, the first Christmas I spent with my in-laws.

What are your favorite Christmas/ Holiday traditions?  I want to hear them!